Bang the Drum Slowly

Details

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This special limited edition J-card MediaBook slipcase (designed by Robert Hunt) is limited to 5,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Taking its name from the Lumière Brothers invention of the same name, Cinématographe is a new sub-label from Vinegar Syndrome that seeks to fill gaps in the canon of American cinema. Offering a mix of auteur driven studio films produced during the New Hollywood era of the late 1960s and 70s all the way through the indie boom of the 1980s and 90s, Cinématographe will explore the wide breadth of American moviemaking, spanning numerous genres and scales of production. Curated and produced by Vinegar Syndrome's Justin LaLiberty, each limited edition release will be housed in a specially designed, cloth-bound, media book with embossed foil titles and custom molded disc trays accompanied by a slipcase featuring newly commissioned art and an individually numbered J-card.

Bruce Pearson (Robert De Niro, Taxi Driver) and Henry Wiggen (Michael Moriarty, The Last Detail) are friends and teammates, playing on The New York Mammoths as catcher and pitcher, respectively. Henry is pulling double duty as an insurance salesman on the side, selling policies to other baseball players, while engaged in a contract dispute with the baseball team’s ownership. When Bruce is diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, realizing he is terminally ill, Henry wavers from his ongoing negotiations to make sure Bruce can be his catcher for one last season.

Based on the acclaimed novel by Mark Harris, who adapted it into a screenplay for this film, BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY is often cited as one of the great sports films of all time. Featuring a talented ensemble cast, including an Oscar nominated turn from veteran character actor Vincent Gardenia (Moonstruck), and deft direction from stage and screen director John Hancock (Let’s Scare Jessica to Death), Cinématographe is proud to bring this iconic baseball film to UHD and blu-ray, both world debuts, in a new 4K restoration of its original 35mm camera negative, supervised by director John Hancock.

directed by: John D. Hancock
starring: Robert De Niro, Michael Moriarty, Vincent Gardenia, Phil Foster, Ann Wedgeworth
1973 / 96 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD MA 1.0

Additional info:

• 2-Disc Set: 4K Ultra HD + Region A Blu-ray
• New audio commentary with director John Hancock moderated by Cinématographe's Justin LaLiberty
• New audio commentary with film historian Jim Hemphill
• Death at the Box Office - a new video interview with director John Hancock 
  
• New video essay by film historian Chris O'Neill
• New text essays by film critic Noah Gittel, author of Baseball: The Movie; film critic Glenn Kenny, author of Anatomy of an Actor: Robert De Niro; and writer and filmmaker Dan Mecca, editor of The Film Stage
• English SDH subtitles